This ballad is based on the various medieval metrical romances concerning the
adventures of a legendary King Horn which date from the 13th century.
The ballad concerns itself with only one incident of the many related in the
romances. Hind Horn serves the King for seven years and has fallen in love with
his daughter. The King is angry and sends Hind Horn to sea. The daughter has
given young Horn a ring; as long as the stones keep their colour, she is true
to him, but if they change hue, she has succumbed to another man. Hind Horn
looks at the ring and finds it has turned pale. He makes for land and meets an
old beggar who gives him the news that the King's daughter has married but will
not go into the bridal bed until she hears of Hind Horn. Horn changes clothes
and gear with the beggar and goes to the palace. The bride comes down to drink
with the beggar and Hind Horn drops the ring into the glass. She questions him
as to where he got the ring and Horn reveals his identity. The King's daughter
is ready to give up her position to join him, but Hind Horn tells her he can
maintain her as a lady.

The ballad is known widely in Scotland, but has not been found in England.
It is extremely rare in America, several texts having been recovered from
Canadians of Scottish ancestry.

This is not a ballad I've heard sung before, but the motifs are familiar;
the exchange of rings, the seven year absence, the return on the wedding day
disguised as a beggar. According to Francis James Child in his
English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
the antecedents of the story go back to beyond the
14th Century to much longer romances of which the ballad is a mere extract.
One version is set in the Crusades, and has more magical qualities to it,
Saladin whisking him back to his homeland. The beginnings of our social
structure date from this time and the long partings that continually occur
in traditional songs may hold a memory of these expeditions, where men would
return overdue, battle scarred, and unrecognisable, and in the absence of
modern bureaucracy, some token was needed to establish identity. Little is
made of how the women's hearts may have changed and they are invariably,
if sometimes unconvincingly, overjoyed.

Brian Peters sang Hind Horn
in 2001 on his CD
Lines.
He commented in his liner notes:

Hind Horn makes up for a disappointing lack of bloodshed with an
admirable piece of cool from the hero which finally wins the day—most of
us in Mr Horn's position would just have gatecrashed the wedding shouting
drunken abuse and got arrested. The tune is half traditional, half made up.

Rachel Newton of The Furrow Collective sang Hind Horn
on their 2014 album
At Our Next Meeting.
She commented in their sleeve notes:

I was first struck by this song on hearing a great version on Chris Coe's
album
A Wiser Fool.
There are many variants listed in Child's
English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
including one that mentions my home town of Edinburgh. I was drawn to the
magic in the song and the thought of Hind Horn tearing back across the sea
to reclaim Jean's love at the sight of the ring fading.

This video shows The Furrow Collective at The Glad Cafe in Glasgow on
February 22, 2014:

Lyrics

Bandoggs sing Hind Horn

Maddy Prior sings Hind Horn

Young Hind Horn to the King is gone,Hey lililo and a ho lo la,
And he's fell in love with his daughter Jean,Hey down and a hey diddle downy.

Young Hind Horn to the King's is gone,Hey Lily and ho ho lan,
He fell in love with the King's daughter Jean,With a hey down, hey diddle downy.

She gave to him a golden ring
With three bright diamonds set therein.

She gave him a gay gold ring
With three bright diamonds glittering.

“When this ring grows pale and wan
It's then that you'll know my love is gone.”

“When this ring grows pale and blue
Then my love is lost to you.”

Now the King has sent him o'er the sea
For seven long years in a far country.

He hoisted his sails and went to sea,
Spent seven years in a far country.

One day his ring grew pale and wan
And he knew that she'd loved another man.

One day he's looked his ring upon,
It grew pale and it grew wan.

So he's left the sea for his own land
And it's there that he's met with a beggar man.

Young Hind Horn is come to land
There he met an old beggar man.

“What news, what news old man doth befall?”
“It's none save the wedding in the King's own hall.”